Top News Stories with Steve & Amy (November 12, 2015)

by SPIRIT 105.3 // November 11, 2015 04:00 pm

Each weekday morning, Steve & Amy share the top news stories your friends & families might be talking about. Looking for more than just the headline they shared? News brought to you by KOMO Wheel of Fortune. Click the links below.

Local sheriffs across America are voicing concern for the safety of the citizens they’ve sworn to protect after the biggest one-time release of federal inmates in U.S. history — though advocates of criminal justice reform maintain the release is being handled responsibly. The 6,112 inmates were released from federal prison at the beginning of November in response to a decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce sentences for most drug trafficking offenses and apply them retroactively. But the mass release raises immediate practical questions about how the ex-inmates can adjust.

Worker contributions to health care costs continue to shoot up–The average health care rate increase for companies was 3.2% this year, the lowest since they started tracking it in 1996. Despite this, the average amount workers have to contribute toward their health care is up more than 134% over the past ten years.

A fast-moving storm system dropped both snow and rain over portions of the Midwest yesterday, strong winds that flipped semitrailers, damaged industrial park buildings and downed power lines in parts of Iowa and Nebraska. National Weather Service said the system, which began Tuesday around Utah and moved eastward into the country’s midsection, dumped more than a foot of snow on the Rockies before creating conditions ripe for tornadoes. Thankfully, there ended up being no tornadoes and they say the worst is now over.